Abstract: While a developmental government promotes economic growth, it also results in rent-seeking activities by enterprises due to excessive intervention into the market As an important part of the transformation of government functions, whether digital government construction can effectively curb rent-seeking behavior of enterprises becomes a question worth testing Using the Digital Government Assessment Index and the data of all A-share listed companies from 2015 to 2019, it is found that digital government can significantly inhibit rent-seeking expenditure of enterprises, with a stronger inhibitory effect of government transparency and a weaker inhibitory effect of government service capacity On the other hand, the inhibitory effect of digital government on private enterprises’ rent-seeking expenditure is stronger than that of digital government on state-owned enterprises’ rent-seeking expenditure; further sub-sample regression shows that the inhibitory effect of digital government on private enterprises’ rent-seeking expenditure is significantly reflected in industries with lower barriers and in regions with a higher degree of marketization, because private enterprises in that scope do not need to pay the rent for maintaining their industry status or a restricted market environment.

Key words: digital government, rent-seeking, private enterprises, sub-sample regression